Complexity is a Matter of Perspective » Enterprise IThttps://jlottosen.wordpress.com
Sun, 02 Aug 2015 20:18:43 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/bcedec04d1e880e46683bf042e0b68fb?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.png » Enterprise IThttps://jlottosen.wordpress.com
Pizza as a Servicehttps://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/pizza-as-a-service/
https://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/pizza-as-a-service/#commentsThu, 05 Mar 2015 15:52:44 +0000http://jlottosen.wordpress.com/?p=1734[…]]]>Snitched off the intarwebs* an illustration of Pizza as a Service. Testing services can engage with the recipient in the same way, we usually refer to this as the engagement model. I have personally experienced all the variations:

As a company I want deliveries, – don’t bother me with the rest

As a company I want deliveries, a test plan and a test report

As a company I want deliveries, test documents and I want to determine the tests

As a company I want deliveries, documents and I want to test some myself

As a company I want to do everything myself

*: Credit to the maker, where ever she is.

Filed under: Enterprise IT, Softwaretesting Tagged: atWork, business, outsourcing, services]]>https://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/pizza-as-a-service/feed/0pizza servicesjlottosenpizza servicesQA Aarhus – Exploratory Testing How and Whenhttps://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/exploratorytestingaarhus/
https://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/exploratorytestingaarhus/#commentsFri, 14 Nov 2014 14:40:28 +0000http://jlottosen.wordpress.com/?p=1703[…]]]>QA Network Aarhus is a local non-affiliated network of testers (and good friends) in Aarhus. Where I had the great pleasure of talking about Exploratory Testing. This is the link collection, the slides are attached.

It’s a collective work written by a number of people in the industry, and have been years in the making. Some of the people work in consulting and provide training in the framework, some of the companies sponsoring the work provide consulting in implementation of the framework. Companies can have an audit for a certificate too. That will require a large investment as the organisation have to (norminative) conform to plenty of “shall”.

But besides that it’s a closed book (and it’s not even on Amazon). To me the 29119 is misguided from the beginning, it should be a book – a commercial body of knowledge, like TMAP or like ITIL. Something that you could buy into or not. Not something in any respect labelled as a international standard.

It seems it requires either a range of documents and lot of tailoring

It seems to be some what “dated” in the addressing ways of testing being added in recent years

It seems to claim that it has consensus in the industry

It seems that some people have tried to participate , but failed

It seems that some people did not want to participate on principle, even if invited

It seems to claim that it is a silver bullet, a one size fits all

I cannot evaluate the implications for my customers asking about compliance without elaboration – on the details of 29119, and on the customers objectives. What is the business driver for complying with said framework? Which is actually what I was looking for – what helps the (customer) business making a business?

I doubt that someone else’s delivery framework can provide you with the DNA, the unique value proposition, of the specific context that is needed – for you! #ImLookingAtYou. If we blindly comply with the framework what is the driver besides cost and commodity. If the driver is something else, then start right there. Start with how testing and artefacts implements the strategy, values and decisions that you have. Start with “innovative“, “quality of life“, “coherent” – how does that relate to your testing.

Filed under: Enterprise IT, Softwaretesting Tagged: business, change, itil, knowledge, standards, value]]>https://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/a-commercial-body-of-knowledge/feed/0standardsjlottosenFDA, Exploration and time to informationhttps://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/fda-exploration-and-time-to-information/
https://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/fda-exploration-and-time-to-information/#commentsFri, 13 Dec 2013 21:47:09 +0000http://jlottosen.wordpress.com/?p=1603[…]]]>A key driver in implementing enterprise knowledge management is to reduce time to information (77% are seeing faster access to knowledge). But that goes for LinkedIn and Twitter too. Using twitter professionally helps you meet the famous people and help you see the communication layers at conferences. Case story: Today I was reading about test processes in a regulated environment, and got curious towards exploratory testing in that context. So I reached out to the #twitterbrain and asked the giants, whose shoulders I am standing on*:

Being agile is about getting something out the door – it’s very good in doing SHIP IT – Tweak it – think it build it. Wax on – wax off. Being agile is about people and tools and is a great approach for problems that allows to be solved with these borders.

The challenge is in the more complex domains with a bigger solution, a bigger problem, a bigger program with many people, many dependencies, many teams. In these (NP?) problem domains other factors come into play: Governance, Customers, Money and the organization as a whole (see slides regarding Agile Adoption Patterns).

In the later contexts agile as a delivery model doesn’t scale without project governance and portfolio management to oversee and prioritize based on strategic returns on investment. Shipping any minimum viable product from time to time in a larger context requires more oversight on “are we nearly there?” “are we ensuring delivery?” “are we ensuring credibility?” .. are the many global teams going agile in each their direction?

The same goes for the testing efforts – agile scales to a certain point, and at that point the scrums, the state-models and so on are a part of the solution engine. It’s what’s tests something, but with size comes the need to know why we make the decisions we make – and are we there yet?

First, every system of any reasonable scale consists of multiple components. Those components are all evolving (due to the effects of competition) and you can (and should) map out the components of any system before embarking on trying to build it. Below in figure 1 is a basic map from a heavy engineering project with a large IT component

Now, all the components are evolving from left to right and as they do so their characteristics change – they move from an uncharted space (the novel, the chaotic, unpredictable, uncertain, potential differential) to the more industrialised (the common, appearance of linear order, the predictable, the certain, the cost of doing business).

There is more to motivation than carrots and sticks – or in the case of the image above: Gold and rotten potatoes.

The poor farmer above had his potato harvest fail, and he had to move driven by fear, hunger, despair – at being targeted for outplacement…. as modern management speak would label depleted human resources.

The wise guy with the pickaxe is out for the rewards of the gold. Out for the cheat and greed of the quick fix. He though fails to deliver in the long run. His balanced score card is loaded for the current budget – containing only my, myself and I.

Lady Liberty in the back as a symbol of opportunities and unknown rewards.A New Hope. I doubt that many immigrants of the days ever visited the monument in the turmoil – it remained only a beacon…

So what has this got to do about testing?

Motivating people is very much about leading testers. But the three “personas” above might also inspire in thinking about things to test:

– Where are the burning platforms?

– Where are the quick rewards?

– Where are the long-term rewards?

If you are not Alan Page – go see RSA Animate – Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Filed under: Enterprise IT, LEGO, Softwaretesting Tagged: atWork, decisions, leadership, value]]>https://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/rock-the-boat/feed/1jlottosenMeet the famous peoplehttps://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/meet-the-famous-people/
https://jlottosen.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/meet-the-famous-people/#commentsSat, 21 Sep 2013 13:59:07 +0000http://jlottosen.wordpress.com/?p=1526[…]]]>So there’s a conference in town, and you’re not going – but you want to say hi to some of the great people: speakers and attendees in real life. IT might be that you have read their book, it might be that you have read their blog, it might be that you follow them on twitter. It will probably be that you have never meet them in person before, but you have had contact with them at work or similarly.

The last item wasn’t easy to achieve, since the conference company restricted the maneuverability of the speaker and reliable internet connections failed us both. Still we did manage to meet in real life and spend ten minutes in a morning coffee break chatting.